Ross

I dissent.

Although Ross testified the term “undistributed reserve” was replaced because it was “an inappropriate term” he admitted that it “covered the same thing” and “the same function” as the “appropriation for contingencies.” However, the term deemed inappropriate by the department was created by the Legislature and not for the department to discard. Section 42125 of the Education Code provides: “The budget may also contain an amount to be known as the undistributed reserve. The funds in the undistributed reserve shall be available for appropriation by a two-thirds vote of the members .of the governing board, to cover expenditures that have not been provided for or that may have been insufficiently provided for, or for unforseen requirements as they may arise.” (Italics added.) Yet, the accounting forms in the manual contain no item labeled “undistributed reserve.”

If a district wished to set aside funds as an “undistributed reserve” as permitted by statute, there is no particular line item specifically designated for such. A district might logically utilize that line item which according to the manual was formerly termed “undistributed reserve.” Indeed, in the instant case…

Plaintiffs Edison School District and its superintendent (hereafter District) appeal from a judgment denying declaratory and injunctive relief. The legal controversy revolves around a statute enacted as an emergency measure less than three weeks after the adoption on June 6, 1978, of article XIII A, of the California Constitution (Prop. 13). The statute (Stats. 1978, ch. 292 as amended, ch. 332) is popularly referred to as the “bail-out bill.” It was intended to “provide for a more orderly implementation” of Proposition 13 (Stats. 1978, ch. 332, § 36); it appropriated several billion dollars in state funds for the use of local agencies including cities, counties, special districts and school districts. Section 1 of the statute pertains to state aid for education, and section 2 provides a formula by which apportionment of state aid to school districts was to be determined for the fiscal year 1978-1979.

Pivotal to this action is section 5 of the “bail-out bill” (Stats. 1978, ch. 332, § 3), which provides in pertinent part: “The aid provided in Section 2 of this act shall be reduced by one-third of the amount by which a school district’s general fund and special reserve…